Real-world advice on SaaS
It’s always great to hear from end users of SaaS applications themselves and to hear about how they have approached SaaS adoption and how those applications sit with other on-premises technology as is often the case. This ComputerWorld article called “Beyond CRM: SaaS slips into the mainstream” makes for interesting reading. It includes case studies from companies using SaaS applications talking about the IT evaluation process and the importance of weighing up SaaS and on-premises technology and combining the two.
It is not always a clear-cut decision and therefore is necessary to put in place people who understand SaaS and can co-exist in a mixed environment. Schumacher Group CIO Doug Menefee provides some wise words: “Everything here is driven by business requirements… All new applications aren’t automatically SaaS-based. Whenever we have a business need, we evaluate what our existing architecture is, and we go to both teams and ask them to come back with proposals to address the problem.”
